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My favourite DIY delay is the one I build myself as a part of my lineup. It's similar to the Rebote/Sea Urchin, sort of a mix between them really. After that is the Dirtbag and Echo Base.

Jacob

I don't know for sure, but it sure seems like you have a lot of DIY Delay!

To make you feel better, I have built all of the ones I know of except the cave dweller at this point. I will at some point, but probably not till the double version is out...

Jacob

I dunno about the offbeat thing.

In some senses, you can do anything you want in circuitry, but then what you do ends up not being the thing you started with. So for instance, with the TS circuit as our example, as soon as you really start messing with it it's not really a tubescreamer at that point. That's why we have a glut of overdrive pedals available to us, because people start messing with the circuit and find something unique or special or quirky or whatever.

The typical things to do to a tubescreamer is to remove the input and output buffers, mess with tone stack and filters, and mess with the clipping diode and op amp choices. You can do other stuff, like add switches to select clipping diodes and such. I knew Dano at Beavis was working on an ultimate Tubescreamer to go along with his mega rat project. That involved switches for selecting op amps, others for clipping diodes, buffered and non buffered bypass, etc. If you wanna go all out, that's the joy of this hobby!

Jacob

The Geofex article on tubescreamers is like holy writ. http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/TStech/tsxfram.htm

1. I'm not sure, I haven't studied the schematic to be certain, but the concept sounds correct.

2. I think some people get confused by the word 'compression.' I see it thrown around a lot when it comes to guitar pedals and amps, and it's worse because some of our pedals are 'compression' pedals. Add in the concept of compressors from recording usage and you have an over used under defined word.

In this case, I think it's simpler to use the word 'clipping.' the diodes in the circuit 'clip' your signal, which introduces distortion on the sine wave. In that sense, it simulates compression from a tube amplifier, which in a sense is a form of compression.

The amount of clipping is directly related to the signal fed into it. Your suggestions about playing with C3 and R7 sound like fun, and you should try it on a breadboard before building if you're wanting to tweak.

3. I'm not sure about what you mean by 'really off.' Perhaps that's just terminology you're familiar with that you think we would be, but perhaps you should describe what you mean better?

Jacob

That's true. They are similar enough...

However, my point is that pretty much any low gain OD would work. Perhaps because you like the blues breaker you should look at doing two in one enclosure, which is essentially what the king of tone is. Plenty of them floating around...

Jacob

The Zendrive is supposed to be "dumble"esque. The Honey Bee is supposed to be "Supro"esque. I actually think any dual op amp overdrive can do what you want, including the bluesbreaker which you're already using.

Actually, I woud recommend trying a Timmy out. It's very, very helpful at low volume I think. It's also very helpful, because of the way the EQ works, at fitting in with pretty much any amp or guitar I've tried thus far.

Jacob

I should note that the Sweet Honey OD and the Yellow Shark are not the same. The Yellow Shark is the Honey Bee OD which is not the same.

Jacob

Only the bestest seasonal confectionary available.

That and those hard large jellybean like candy with the marshmallow inside them. I dunno what they're called, but I LOVE those things.

And thats why I have to lose 30 lbs...

Jacob

You could look into the clickless bypass kits from Jack Deville. He's around here sometimes, and I've spoken with him on the phone - cool guy. Anyway, you could look into designing your own, or you could try a system that's already available.

Jacob

Never. I believe everything I read on the interweb, including the things that directly disagree with each other.

Also, that's a hot colour. I love it.

Jacob

I think you may want to remove the image if it isn't yours. Other than that, I can look at doing a layout for you if can provide a schematic. Either link one from somewhere else or post the schematic if it's your own artwork. Alternatively you can PM or email me.

Jacob

You should fill the rest of the pedal with Peeps or something.  Just because you can.

Done.

That's a neutrino, right? How much wiring do you do out-of-the-box?

The first Neutron Drive was a Neutrino. That's not true of the current production models persay, except that they are both dual op amp overdrives with a similar topology. Essentially, both circuits are derivative of the TS circuit, largely based from the Son of a Screamer DIY project. Pretty much ALL boutique overdrives look the same.

I kept the Neutron Drive name because I liked it, but no, it's not a neutrino.

This particular PCB allows me to tweak the tone circuit, as well as offers options for clipping. I can have clipping that's in the feedback loop of the gain circuit, and/or as a shunt to ground on the signal path after the 1st stage. I can also do asymmetrical clipping in that first stage, and I've added pads to do mosfet clipping in the post gain stage clipping section.

Oh, and I'm not sure what you mean by wiring out of the box. I do all my wiring in specific ways I've learned that work for me. I'm in the middle of designing a jig that will enable me to wire cleaner and faster, but that's still in progress. There'll be a build report on that at some point.

Jacob

Jacob

Yes, chances are it needs to be removed.

With caps, generally you are safe with matching 5-10% off the value. In the case of 82nF, you can go as much as 90nF down to about 74nF and be within tolerance. However, chances are that with either 68nF or 100nF you'd be fine but it might not sound the same.

Another thing you can do is use two caps in parallel or in series to get whatever value you don't. Try playing with an online capacitor calclulator.

I have tried mosfet clipping, both in the Sunking and elsewhere and it's often a really cool sound. I prefer germanium diode clipping myself, but that's me.

There is no better switch. Either will work, a DPDT or a 3PDT are essentially the same, just one has more poles.

Jacob

Yup. Just run two wires from the DC Jack to the power in pads on the PCBs. That would be running them in parallel. Don't run them in series, which is one wire to one PCB, then a wire from that PCB to the other PCB.

Jacob

My family and I are in a two bedroom apartment. My kit lives in cases in my office at work, stacked in a corner. I once in a while drag it out into our big multipurpose room, which is also where illness recording...

Fortunately I've always been able to use my instruments at my place of work, cause there's no way that'd fly at home.

Jacob